Page 54 of Little Children

Bryant thought he was going to throw up.

He nodded in agreement before looking away as a wave of self-loathing swept over him. He had to focus on the bigger picture. If he knocked the guy out right now, he’d be removed from the case and robbed of the chance to find something that would definitely send this bastard down.

‘Did you catch him?’ Bryant asked, stirring the tea.

‘Nah, nothing physical left behind. Bastard got away with it.’

‘What was her name?’ he asked, trying desperately to uncover just one shred of humanity in the bloke.

‘Dunno. Layla, Lucy or something.’

‘Got any more?’ Bryant asked, praying for him to say no.

‘I only take the good ones. Gotta have something to remember them by, and you gotta make your own fun in this job. You?’ Moss asked.

‘I’m shit at not getting caught,’ Bryant said, trying to put the image out of his mind. He couldn’t bear the thought of the victim’s family not even knowing that their loved one was suffering this final indignity. ‘My boss would catch me if she was half a mile away. Got eyes in the back of her head.’

‘Yeah, doesn’t surprise me,’ Moss said, pouring water into the mugs in front of him. ‘She wouldn’t last long if she was my boss,’ he added as Bryant picked up the tray.

Bryant bit his lip hard to prevent any retort coming out of his mouth, then headed back into the squad room, wondering how the hell he was going to keep this up.

Thirty-Two

Kim could tell from her colleague’s hard stare that something had happened in the kitchen. She wondered briefly what it was costing him to maintain this charade. She’d check on him once the briefing was over.

‘Hope you don’t mind me jumping in,’ she said, moving to the front of the room. ‘But we really need to merge these investigations and assume the disappearance of Lewis and Noah is linked,’ she went on, even though she wasn’t totally convinced they were. The Stevens family were hiding something to do with Lewis, which suggested otherwise, but there was a nagging feeling in her stomach that the two cases were connected somehow. Additionally, linking the investigations would allow her to keep closer tabs on the Blackpool team.

Red began to shake his head. ‘You gotta trust us on this. Lewis is a runaway. We’ve investigated?—’

‘And you’ve identified the person Lewis talked to in the car park for more than thirty seconds?’

This time Red looked at Adil, Dickinson and Carly, who all remained silent.

‘And you absolutely have to know that Kevin, the brother who already dumped him somewhere in the past as a punishment, caught up with Lewis in the arcade café, shouted at him and smacked him before storming off?’

Red was saved from answering when his phone rang. He held up his hand to excuse himself and took the phone into their mini squad room, closing the door behind himself.

Kim stole a glance at Stacey, who gave a slight shake of the head to indicate that nothing concerning the three names they’d been sent was on show.

Red paced back and forth a couple of times while looking their way.

‘Don’t think anything you’ve said is grounds to change the way we’re investigating,’ Roy said, folding his arms over his stomach.

‘Sorry, Roy, didn’t hear your boss temporarily promote you while he stepped out to take a call,’ Kim said, meeting his gaze. His expression left her in no doubt about his feelings for her and she couldn’t care less.

‘That was Bobby Stevens,’ Red said, rejoining them. ‘Kevin left the house after being grounded, and they can’t reach him on his mobile phone.’

Roy started to clap. ‘Bravo, Inspector. Two for the price of one. That poor family now has two missing boys.’

‘Shut up, Roy,’ Red snapped at him, surprising everyone in the room, before looking her way again. ‘They don’t want you to visit them again.’

‘You don’t find that suspicious?’ Kim asked. ‘And since when did we take instruction from suspects?’

‘They’re not suspected of anything. They’re missing one child, and now they’re missing another. For the time being, I’d prefer you didn’t contact?—’

‘Hang on. We’ve uncovered more about Lewis’s disappearance in twenty-four hours than?—’

‘Wait one minute,’ Red said as his entire team gave her daggers. ‘Let’s not get personal and keep this about the case. Whatever their reasons, the Stevenses are still victims right now, and we’ll honour their request.’